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Microtransactions Descend on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

With the announcement that all EA games would contain microtransactions (just kidding, all mobile games, sure…), it seems Activision had a war room strategy meeting of their own. They’re now rolling out the model for their most popular series by far: Call of Duty.

Microtransactions are indeed heading to Black Ops 2 as explained in a blog post by community manager Dan Amrich. The items listed don’t appear to be anything to be alarmed about, though I can hear a chorus whispering “this is how it starts” in my ear.

So, what’s for micro-sale?

Personalization Packs – Skins for your weapons that include one that wraps your gun in bacon for 160 MS points. Yum.

Nuketown Zombies – It was available in other map packs, but it will be sold as a standalone item now for 400 MS points.

Extra slots Packs – This is for either more custom loadouts or more theater space. You get “ 10 (total) Create-a-Class sets and significantly expand your media storage, allowing you to archive 20 more emblems, 32 more films and 40 more screenshots for 160 MS Points.”

So no, it’s hard to find anything game breaking in here, as you can’t buy weapons or perks or anything like that. But is that really so far off?

Recently, I’ve compared microtransactions to cheat codes. The primary purpose of many of them appears to be skipping ahead “grind” type work in order to unlock items more quickly, something a “cheat” used to accomplish, but now you have to pay for the privilege.

That isn’t what we’re talking about with the packs above, but we could be someday soon. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that you could pay a buck or two to unlock the next tier of weapon a few hours early? Given the direction the industry is heading, I can’t see that as being off the table. If you get a million Call of Duty players to even spend one extra dollar on the game, that’s a million dollars right there (math!). Rinse and repeat, and we could see $60 games with entire systems of interlaced microtransactions that are indeed tied to core gameplay.

But until then, I have no problem if you want to pay $1 to wrap your gun in bacon.

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